LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


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-5535?- 


LETTERS 

FROM  THE  DEAD 

TO  THE  DEAD 

COLLECTED,    EDITED,    AND    ARRANGED    WITH 
NOTES,    COMMENTS,    AND    GLOSSARY 


BY 


OLIVER   LECTOR 


'  Horatio.    Oh  day  and  night :  but  this  is  wondrous  strange. 
Hamlet.     And  therefore  as  a  stranger  give  it  welcome. 
There  are  more  things  in  Heaven  and  earth 
than  are  dream't  of  in  our  philosophy." 


BOSTON   AND   NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

Cfoe  ftitcrsibe  press,  Cambridge 

MCMV 


COPYRIGHT   1905  BY  BERNARD  QUARITCH 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  October  1305 


Ad  Manes  Baconi 

This,  let  my  supplication  be,  — 
One  fragment  of  thy  radiant  soul, 
Of  thy  Promethean  heat  one  coal, 

O  Master-Mystic  give  to  me. 


INDEX 


PAGE 


I.  Jacob  de  Bruck  to  Francis  Bacon    .        .        .        .  i 

II.    Francis  Bacon  to  Jacob  de  Bruck         ...  4 

III.  Henry  Briggs  to  John  Napier 19 

IV.  John  Napier  to  Henry  Briggs       .        .        .        .  23 
V.   Guido  Fawkes,  otherwise  Guy  Fawkes,  to  Francis 

Bacon 27 

VI.   William  Shakspeare  to  Francis  Bacon  .        .        .  31 
VII.   Francis  Bacon  to  William  Shakspeare      ...  34 
VIII.   Notes,  Critical  and  Explanatory,  by  the  Editor    .  47 
IX.   De  Bruck's  Latin  Verses  Englished  in  Ten  Para- 
phrases by  the  Editor 66 

Glossary       .* 75 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  DEAD 
TO  THE  DEAD 

i 

JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  Angermundt,  to  FRANCIS  BACON 

i 

CHRISTMAS,  1904 
My  singular  good  friend : 

By  manie   noble   rivers 

winding  through  fruitful  and  pleasant  lands,  we  came 
to  a  grove  wherein  there  stood  a  stately  temple,  in 
breadth  some  two  hundred  feet  and  of  a  height  I 
should  judge  above  one  hundred  and  fiftie,  the  archi- 
trave supported  upon  Doric  pillars,  hewn  as  I  think 
out  of  porphyre  or  chalcedonie,  and  above  the  en- 
trance I  read  these  words  in  the  Latin  tongue,  To 
the  memorie  of  the  Mystics  of  the  earth.  Whilst  I  was 
admiring  the  graceful  proportions  of  this  majestick 
pile,  I  felt  drawn,  as  it  were  by  some  potent  influ- 
ence, within  the  walls  of  the  building,  and  before  I 
was  aware  of  it  I  had  crossed  the  threshold. 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT,  TO 

The  court  within  was  answerable  to  the  proportions 
of  the  temple.  The  pavement  was  of  some  material 
the  like  of  which  I  had  never  before  beheld. 

Every  stone  therein  glowed  as  with  living  light. 
I  was  aware  of  a  throng  shadowy  as  a  veil  and  of  a 
presence  under  a  canopy  raised  somewhat  above  the 
level  of  the  floor.  As  I  was  about  to  make  obeisance 
unto  it,  the  accents  of  a  stern  voice  brake  upon  me 
saying,  Who  cometh  hither?  Then  made  answer 
another  from  the  farthest  end  of  the  hall,  He  who 
was  on  earth  the  Chevalier  de  Bruck  of  Angermundt. 
Before  I  could  utter  an  exclamation  of  wonder,  me- 
thought  the  first  voice  replied,  Let  his  record  be 
examined.  Straightway  thereupon  another  voice  not 
harsh  and  stern,  but  low  and  silvery,  read  as  from 
a  book  these  words:  Nationality  unknown;  of  birth 
gentle;  Earth  date  1616;  emblem  writer.  While  I 
was  still  bowing  amazed  and  strook  with  sudden 
fear,  the  first  voice,  addressing  the  throng,  said,  Let 
him  return  this  day  one  moon  hence,  and  let  him 
be  furnisht  with  an  exposition  of  his  mysticisms.  I 
turned  away,  and,  as  if  it  had  been  by  some  magical 
art,  I  beheld,  as  I  live  and  hope  for  mercie,  a  statue 
of  your  Excellency. 

Then  came  I  out  into  the  pleasant  fields  commun- 
ing with  myself  what  should  be  the  meaning  of 
so  strange  an  event,  and  marvelling  wherein  I  had 
deserved  to  be  enrolled  a  mystic. 

[    2] 


FRANCIS  BACON 

Breathless  ran  I  back,  and,  prostrating  myself, 
craved  leave  to  bring  again  such  part  onlie  of  mine 
emblemes  as  memorie  could  supplie  me  withal.  What 
I  craved  was  granted. 

In  that  brief  interval  I  did  recall  the  booklet  your 
Excellency,  for  reasons  best  known  to  yourself,  did 
draw  me  on  to  set  forth  in  the  ancient  city  of  Stras- 
bourg in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1616.  What  the  pen- 
altie  may  be  of  disobedience  to  their  behests  certes 
I  know  not;  but  this  right  well  I  know,  or  rather  this 
right  well  I  fear:  some  calamity  will  befall  me  if  I 
fail.  I  know  another  thing :  by  your  help  onlie  shall 
I  be  able  to  obey  their  commandments. 

Have,  therefore,  a  pityful  eye  upon  me,  and  give 
ear  unto  my  petition.  Send,  I  praie,  by  the  nearest 
way,  a  compendium,  writ  to  mine  humble  under- 
standing, of  so  many  or  so  few  of  the  body  of  that 
strange  writing  which  once,  O  master,  was  committed 
unto  me,  and  I  shall  ever  rest  in  humilitie  your  poor 
bedesman. 

JACOB  DE  BRUCK. 


[3  ] 


II 

FRANCIS  BACON  to  JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  Angermundt 

Sir: 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  vouchsafing  to  send 
me  your  late  lines,  and  for  certifying  what  seemeth 
strange  to  you,  but  not  to  me.  To  expound  emblems 
at  this  present  I  find  myself  neither  fit  nor  disposed ; 
and  besides  this  averse  disposition  of  my  mind,  I  have 
scant  leisure  to  write  a  short  letter,  as  a  worthie 
Ancient  once  said,  and  no  wish  to  write  a  long  one. 
Nevertheless,  because  I  find  myself  knit  to  your 
deservings  with  bands  of  enduring  strength,  I  would 
not  have  you  think  me  either  remiss  in  civility  or  of 
so  slothful  a  nature  that  to  stead  a  friend  I  would 
not  run  against  the  bias  of  distaste.  I  will,  therefore, 
to  the  uttermost  of  my  power  and  amity,  recount 
those  things  which  may  at  this  time  advantage  you 
and  peradventure  harm  me  no  jot. 

Premising  this  onlie,  that  the  distaste  whereof  I 
have  spoken  proceedeth  not  upon  anie  ill  conceit  of 
your  person ;  but  rather  upon  mine  inflexible  opinion 
that  all  that  I  did  upon  those  curious  toys  called 

[4] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO  JACOB  DE  BRUCK 

emblems  devoured  time  that  was  ill  bestowed.  Me- 
thinks  I  did  assume  too  great  a  nimbleness  of  wit 
in  the  French  men  of  your  time,  that  I  builded  too 
great  hopes  upon  the  sagacity  of  the  German  and 
the  tenacity  and  slow  plodding  of  the  students  who 
dwelt  in  the  Netherlands.  Of  mine  own  countrymen 
I  did  expect  little,  nor  in  this  was  I  deceived. 

The  age  which  followed  mine  was  an  age  of  civil 
commotion. 

When  Peace  brow-bound  with  her  olive  garland 
came  back  to  that  distracted  isle,  the  old  learning 
had  died ;  and  that  which  commonly  happeneth  after 
civil  war  thereupon  ensued :  Folly  became  the  mas- 
ter of  the  revels.  How  else  (think  you)  was  it  that 
it  came  to  pass,  though  I  planted  manie  a  sprigge  in 
manie  a  quaint  and  curious  emblem  volume,  that  not 
one  germinated  or  bore  flowering  seed  for  hard  upon 
three  centuries  ?  As  for  yours,  some  of  them,  in  verie 
truth  clear  as  a  mathematical  diagram,  failed  utterly, 
failed  hopelessly,  of  anie  the  least  effect.  But  satis 
superque.  If  I  mistake  not,  in  the  drawings  and  text 
of  that  which  I  now  send  there  be  little  error.  In 
the  emblemes  which  now  I  doe  expound  I  have 
thought  good  to  put  exposition  and  embleme  on  the 
same  page  whereby  methinks  my  meaning  may  be 
better  discerned. 

Now  because  the  mind  hath  by  its  own  properties 
slowness  of  motion  and  inertness,  specially  if  the 

[  5  ] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

subject  be  strange  or  new,  I  have  thought  it  befitting 
to  observe  not  the  order  which  obtaineth  in  de  Bruck 
his  emblemes,  but  rather  to  begin  with  those  which 
are  most  patent,  going  then  to  the  more  recondite 
and  complex. 


Exposition  of  ye  emblemes. 

NUMBER  i.  You  shall  see  in  this  emblem,  that  the 
wind  setteth  from  that  quarter  where  certain  revellers 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

are  making  merry  under  the  trees :  this  is  indicated 
by  the  waving  of  the  sedge  seen  growing  along 
the  bank  of  the  stream ;  questionlesse,  therefore,  the 
spear  enveloped  with  ciphers  threaded  on  a  strand 
will  shake  and  vibrate  in  the  brize. 

The  motto  or  poesy  of  the  ring,  " Ultima  Frigent" 
at  the  last  they  shake,  signifieth  no  less.  The  eel 
prone  upon  his  back  denoteth  two  thinges :  first  the 
vowel  "  U  "  (that  is,  you)  may  be  supposed  to  utter 
this  phrase,  You,  Shakespeare,  enveloped  as  thou  art 
in  ciphers.  As  hath  been  said,  the  "  U  "  may  also 
be  taken  as  expressing  the  Roman  numeral  5,  hence 
that  the  five  fold  cipher,  like  the  eel  his  back  on,  is 
dead. 

The  last  line  of  the  Latin  poem,  "  Now  the  under- 
taker layeth  hold  of  the  fame  of  the  dead  man," 
uttereth  a  prophecy. 


[7] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 


Cx  ftccA  fmf&  rudiccietL 

*-n  ^/       f   (T    — 

Una  awndajn     rue  nict  SWUM.  jrra.Gtic/tt. 

'  '  &-      «-^X 

oDOL  ' 


*(*          '  c 

<~>ufcttjU;  ULd 


NUMBER  2.  There  needeth  no  other  interpretation 
of  this  emblem  than  a  brief  quotation  from  the  plaie 
of  Cymberline  as  followeth :  "  And  when  from  a 
stately  cedar  shall  be  lopped  branches  which,  being 
dead  manie  years,  shall  after  revive,  be  jointed  to  the 
old  stock,  and  freshly  grow,  then  shall  posthumas 
end  his  miseries,  Britain  be  fortunate,  and  flourish  in 

[8] 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

peace  and  plenty."  Posthumas  prefiguring  there  the 
after  ages,  and  the  branches  dead  manie  years  that 
portion  of  my  writings  which  I  did  sequester  from 
the  vulgar  gaze. 

Turn  we  now  to  number  three,  with  its  motto; 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

"  Nil  ultra?  Therein  may  be  seen  prefigered  my 
cipher,  and  the  snail  marching  round  and  round  his 
ring  the  slow  process  of  its  solution. 


NUMBER  4.  The  fabled   phcenix  rising  from   his 
ashes  I  hold  to  be  a  representation  of  those  secret 

[  10] 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

writings  already  touched  upon.  The  cipher  held 
aloft,  my  cipher. 

The  buried  numbers  39  and  27  signifieth  a  two 
fold  numerical  cipher.  The  obelisk,  peradventure  it 
is  a  joke ;  peradventure  it  is  a  deep  fetch  of  my  wit. 

There  needeth  in  conclusion  onlie  this,  as  the 
verse  declareth,  It  is  not  mortal  fame  that  I  desire. 

NUMBER  5.  The  youth  standeth  upon  a  hillock 
and  bloweth  at  a  candle.  What  more,  marry  ?  I  trow 


<LC£,uuL6>z&  fut 

dfie. 
'  sic,     eavrc 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

little  more ;  but  the  drift  of  your  book  being  now  ap- 
parent, there  may  be  one  who,  regarding  the  knights 
that  Shake  speares>  will  pierce  the  veil  and  say,  "  Out, 
out,  brief  candle !  life  's  but  a  walking  shadow,  a  poor 
player  that  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the  stage 
and  then  is  heard  no  more." 

My  poor  player  moveth  apace  to  his  final  exit. 

NUMBER  6.   In  the  sonnets  called  the  Sonnets  of 


cfalrcs  raMtn,  turn, 


*  c-    f    ,         -    s 
?  cunufut.    f&(La, 


IS. 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

Shakespeare  there  be  divers  notable  mysteries,  as 
manic  writers  have  in  good  part  marked.  This  emblem 
addresseth  itself  to  observation,  not  to  the  intellect. 
The  light  and  the  dark  "  A  "  in  the  impress  of  those 
sonnets  are  represented  in  the  branches  of  the  tree. 
These  two  letters  signify  a  two  fold  literal  cipher 
and  make  the  distinction  between  one  which  is  nu- 
merical, shown  in  the  fourth  emblem  herein.  This 
cannot  be  understood  except  ye  examine  with  care 
the  light  and  the  dark  "A"  with  their  suspended 
key  in  Shakespeare  his  sonnets.  The  executioner  in 
the  back  ground  doth  behead  his  victim,  an  obscure 
glance  at  that  notable  mystery,  "  The  onlie  Begetter 
of  these  ensuing  sonnets." 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 


/  /iffJL 
\s 


Juza, 


•    '  /   .  _      /»    /) 

tuvu    ctdfiLuuL  -fuSoL 


CUM 


uj   6 


NUMBER  7.  This  emblem  taketh  hold,  under  the 
name  of  logs,  of  the  logarithms;  and  by  the  motto 
of  the  ring,  "Nil  solidum"  nothing  solid,  I  gave  a 
warning  against  credulous  beliefs. 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

NUMBER  8.    I  will  make  signification  unto  you  of 
the  Emblem  which  here  you  behold  as  followeth: 


tUm.  iruaA  pLciMJitj  cc  fiiururuL  hunt/ 

/"         •  (-^      -          /»         «^  —  *S 

CjrnsUti<ni.i,<vch<t=. 

*  fl  '    / 

t,  certo  est  vtx  a.Kf 


-  —  « 


<:c 


cet, 


I  mean  of  the  ant  beneath  the  hat,  that  you  must 
seek  him  ere  you  dig  my  meaning  out ;  and  I  mean  of 
the  shovel  resting  upon  the  arm  of  the  sea,  that  the 
sea  cant  uphold  it.  The  rebus  of  a  secant  is  plainly 
expressed  in  seek  ant  and  sea  cant.  But  to  make  my 
meaning  clear,  that  the  trigonometrical  functions  of 

[  15] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

the  arc  have  a  relation  to  my  problem,  I  chose  the 
French  word  for  ant,  fourmys,  in  the  french  verses,  a 
manifest  reference  to  form  is,  and  he  who  hath  read 
the  Novum  Organum  wots  well  the  emphasis  I  lay 
upon  the  discovery  of  forms.  Mark,  likewise,  ye  ac- 
crostick,  in  the  first  row  of  my  french  verses. 


NUMBER  9.     Peradventure   the    loist   sonnet  of 
[  16] 


JACOB  DE  BRUCK,  ANGERMUNDT 

Shakespeare,  which  commenceth,  "  Oh  truant  muse," 
looketh  as  well  to  the  preceeding  emblem  as  towards 
the  one  now  before  you,  because  the  ring  and  the 
cord  binding  pillar  to  pillar  make  the  letters  Oh.  In 
certain  copies  of  the  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Son- 
nets, 1609,  this  word  Oh  will  be  found  to  bear  my 
cipher  dot  thus,  .Oh. 


[  17] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO  JACOB  DE  BRUCK 


rw^       /( 

dffn&e,    j&cnLw, 

fCVJ. 


NUMBER  10.  The  beacon  on  the  hill  found  here 
indicates  Bacon  well  enough  and  the  trefoil  held 
aloft  may  be  interpreted,  if  you  will  read  page  43, 
vol.  4  of  the  Letters  and  Life  of  Francis  Bacon  by 
James  Spedding,  London,  1868. 

[  18  ] 


Ill 

HENRY  BRIGGS  to  JOHN  NAPIER 

22ND  JANUARY,  1905 

Because  of  the  community  of  our  studies,  dear  friend, 
our  long  assured  friendship  and  steadfast  goodwill, 
continued  these  manie  years  bygone,  I  have  made  so 
bold  as  to  propound  unto  your  honer  certain  doubts 
which  now  and  in  former  years  have  crossed  my 
mind  touching  the  invention  of  logarithms. 

What  I  have  to  say  unto  you  I  would  fain  set 
down  with  this  caveat,  that  you  are  not  to  imagine  or 
think  that  I  mean  to  question  the  sufficiency  of  your 
learning,  or  of  those  gifts  in  the  mathematics  where- 
with under  Providence  you  were  so  happily  endowed. 
To  make  a  plain  tale  with  you,  my  doubt  ariseth 
upon  this :  In  the  preface  of  your  book  Mirifici  Log- 
arithmorum  Canonis  Descriptio,  you  say,  "  Multis 
subinde  in  hunc  finem  perpensis  nonnulla  tandem 
inveni  preclara  compendia,  alibi  fortasse  tractanda : " 
which  Mr.  Edward  Wright  did  render  in  his  transla- 
tion of  your  book  as  f olloweth :  "  I  found  at  length 


HENRY  BRIGGS  TO  JOHN  NAPIER 

some  excellent  brief  rules,  to  be  treated  of  (perhaps) 
hereafter,"  and  when  Mr.  Edward  Wright  did  shew 
that  to  me  I  thought  then,  as  now  I  think,  that  your 
words,  with  the  clause,  "  To  be  treated  of  perhaps  else- 
where," vail  a  hidden  mystery.  This  light  suspicion 
grew  stronger  on  one  occasion  when  I  observed  that 
the  impress  in  your  book,  of  two  cupids,  two  rabbits, 
and  the  suspended  fish,  is  in  every  way  precisely  like 
the  one  adopted  for  that  mystical  body  of  writing, 
published  in  our  time,  called  William  Shakespeare's 
Sonnets. 

It  hath  been  said  by  writers  of  repute,  that  neither 
you  nor  I  knew  in  fact  that  the  logarithm  had  a  base. 
How  this  standeth  with  you  verily  I  know  not,  but 
for  mine  own  part  I  may  affirm  that  I  was  never  igno- 
rant of  it.  In  your  Rabdologia,  part  2,  chapter  6,  you 
shew  the  geometrical  progression  i,  2,  4, 8,  16,  32,  64, 
128,  256,  512,  1024,  and  so  following;  and  I  cannot 
be  persuaded  that  whilst  you  were  thinking  on  the 
subject  of  logarithms,  you  did  never  put  these  over 
against  the  arithmetical  progression  o,  i,  2,  3,  4,  5, 
6,  7,  8,  9,  10,  thus : 

i o 

2 I 

4 2 

8 3 

16 4 

[20] 


HENRY  BRIGGS  TO  JOHN  NAPIER 

32 5 

64 6 

128 7 

256 8 

512  ..........  9 

1024 10 

Now  let  the  numbers  in  the  right  hand  column  be 
the  logarithms  of  the  numbers  in  the  left  hand  col- 
umn. A  child  may  discern  that  the  addition  of  2  -f-  5 
equaleth  7,  which  is  the  logarithm  of  128,  and  that 
thereby  4,  of  which  i  is  the  logarithm,  multiplieth 
32,  of  which  5  is  the  logarithm,  and  the  result  is  128, 
of  which  7  is  the  logarithm.  Equally  lieth  it  patent 
to  the  eye,  that  4  is  the  exponent  of  base  2,  and  so  of 
all  the  other  numbers  in  the  right  hand  column. 
So,  as  it  seemeth,  both  the  conception  of  a  logarithm 
as  the  exponent  of  an  invariable  base  could  not  have 
been  absent  from  your  mind  when  you  were  making 
those  computations,  if  you  worked  with  your  eyes 
open,  as  I  trow  well  you  didd. 

I  will  be  bold  to  set  down  mine  opinion,  that  never 
in  History  hath  there  been  so  strange  a  fact,  as  that 
you  should  have  selected,  instead  of  one  of  manie 
whole  numbers  for  your  base,  the  fraction  represented 
by 


And  this,  too,  when  it  must  have  been  known  to  you 

[21    ] 


HENRY  BRIGGS  TO  JOHN  NAPIER 

that  your  tables  could  never  in  practice  be  generally 
useful,  because  they  could  not  be  infinite  in  extent. 
Impart,  I  prithee,  unto  me  the  reasons  which  guided 
you  to  so  strange  a  choice ;  and  so  with  protestations 
of  loving  affection, 
I  rest, 

your  friend,  willing  to  do  you  service 
when  time  serveth, 

HENRY  BRIGGS. 


[22] 


IV 

JOHN  NAPIER  to  HENRY  BRIGGS 

3OTH  JANUARY,  1905 

I  have  shewn  your  recent  letter  to  an  inward  friend 
of  mine,  who  hath  counselled  me,  yf  I  bee  so  minded, 
to  give  you  contentment,  so  far  as  I  am  able,  con- 
cerning those  things  which  you  desire  to  know.  My 
wonder  is  not  that  you  think  those  things  strange 
whereof  you  write,  but  rather  that  others  have  not 
penetrated  behind,  or  torn  aside,  the  veil  of  that  mys- 
tery. 

In  the  year  1594,  Master  Antony  Bacon,  a  man 
whom  I  profess  I  loved  for  his  manie  rare  and  excel- 
lent parts,  and  who  merited  better  deservings  than 
he  got,  writ  unto  me  a  letter  wherein,  inter  alia,  he 
said  that  his  brother  Francis  was  one  of  the  most 
capable  spirits  of  the  age.  Other  things,  which  my 
modesty  preventeth  my  setting  down,  he  vented  in 
his  letter  touching  my  gifts,  specially  in  the  mathe- 
matique.  It  contained,  moreover,  that  which  it  im- 
porteth  me  not  now  to  declare,  but  the  conclusion 
of  it  was  an  invitation  to  visit  them,  that  is  to  say, 

[  23  ] 


JOHN  NAPIER  TO  HENRY  BRIGGS 

Anthony  and  his  brother,  at  Twickenham,  where  they 
then  lodged.  Mine  own  affaires  did  call  me  to  Lon- 
don, as  I  now  remember,  in  the  Midsummer  of  that 
year ;  and,  having  ended  my  business,  I  made  the  visit 
which  I  wrate  I  would  do  in  my  answer  to  Master 
Anthony  his  letter.  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with  all 
that  passed :  let  it  be  enough  to  say,  that  1  was  then 
shewn  by  Francis  Bacon,  Mirabile  dictu,  the  verie 
series  which  you  have  recorded  in  your  letter. 

The  mystical  properties  of  those  numbers  seemed 
unto  me,  then,  to  savour  of  arts  magical  rather  than 
mathematical,  and  they  laid  such  siege  to  my  mind 
that  I  could  for  a  long  time  think  of  nothing  else. 
To  make  a  short  story  of  a  long  tale,  we  did  enter 
into  covenants  reciprocal,  whereby  I  should  bestow 
the  labour  demanded  for  accurate  computation  of 
the  tables,  taking  the  worldly  credit  thereof  for  my 
reward ;  and  Francis  Bacon  on  his  part  reserved  unto 
himself  the  furnishing  of  two  prefatory  Latin  poems 
and  the  impresses  or  sparta  of  my  book. 

I  care  not  how  this  standeth  with  my  reputa- 
tion, but  in  the  fulness  of  time  al  will  be  known;  and 
what  mattereth,  therefore,  a  little  anticipation.  For  a 
briefe  space  onlie  have  I  known  the  true  significa- 
tion of  these  verses  prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of 
my  book. 


[24] 


JOHN  NAPIER  TO  HENRY  BRIGGS 

ALIUD. 

"  Buchanane  tibi  Neperum  adscisce  sodalem, 
Floreat  &  nostris  SCOTIA  nostra  viris : 
Nam  velut  ad  Summum  culmen  perducta  Poesis 
In  te  stat,  nee  quo  progrediatur  habet : 
Sic  etiam  summum  est  culmen  perducta  Mathesis, 
Inque  hoc  stat,  nee  quo  progrediatur  habet." 

Mr.  Francis  Bacon  took  great  delight  in  acrostics 
and  such  enigmas. 

Reading  up  the  first  letters  of  each  line,  one  may 
be  there  noted,  "  I  sin  F.  B.,'  as  one  should  say,  I 
sign  F.  B. ;  but  this  acrostic  importeth  more  than 
that.  At  page  58  of  my  book,  it  will  be  observed 
that  the  first  sine  computed  by  me  is  the  sine  of 
nought  degrees  nought  minutes.  Hence  the  first 
sine,  answering  to  fig.  i,  is  a  double  cipher.  Where- 
fore it  admonishes  the  reader  to  search  and  find 
such  two  fold  cipher. 

Forasmuch  (dear  friend)  as  you  marvel  at  my 
choosing  so  strange  a  base,  be  it  known  unto  you, 
that  mine  was  no  free  election. 

For  reasons  which  Bacon  did  never  disclose  unto 
me,  he  required  such  a  base  as  would  serve  when 
taken  from  the  base  10  afterwards  adopted  by  you 
to  segregate  the  number  9*6321. 

Peradventure  you  understand  why  Shakespeare's 
Sonnets  and  Napier's  logarithms  have  one  common 

[25  ] 


JOHN  NAPIER  TO  HENRY  BRIGGS 

device,  and  it  needeth  not  great  wit   to  read  that 
emblem. 

" Magna  est  veritas  et  praevalebit :"  and  so  this 
much  have  I  opened  unto  you  to  the  disablement  of 
my  worldlie  fame  and  your  better  advertisement. 
Resting  as  always, 

your  assured  and  loving  friend, 

JOHN  NAPIER. 


[26] 


V 

GUY  FAWKES  to  FRANCIS  BACON 

FEBRUARY  IST,  1905 
Jesus !    Maria ! 

There  be  little  knowen  on  that  earth  I  quit  in  haste, 
sirrah,  which  soon  or  late  cometh  not  to  the  know- 
ledge of  this  place  where  now  I  am.  Because  of  the 
nearness  messengers  are  manie  and  other  communi- 
cations not  few.  So  is  it  that  what  I  am  about  to 
make  protestation  of,  belike  is  as  well  known  to  me 
as  to  you.  I  have  read  your  fustian  poem  in  Latin, 
which  you  shamed  to  own  living,  and  in  which,  I 
trow,  much  pride  you  cannot  take  e'en  now:  I  mean 
that  one  called  In  Homines  Nefarios.  Do  you  think 
because  I  have  trailed  a  pike  I  have  never  thumbed 
a  grammar?  Aye,  marry,  that  I  have,  and  could  hie 
my  haec  and  hanc  my  hujus  with  the  best  of  'em. 
Long  before  your  porrige-pated  sallet-hearted  fool  of 
a  Scotch  King  began  to  compound  canticles  in  base 
Latin,  to  sing  through  his  misbegotten  nose,  with 
as  manie  false  quantities  in  's  verses,  as  false  weights 
in  old  Antonio  Volponis'  bake  shop  in  Turin.  He 

[27] 


GUY  FAWKES  TO  FRANCIS  BACON 

it  was  who  baked  Musquette  bullets  in  the  crust  of 
his  quarterne  loaves,  and  after  weighing  plucked  'em 
out  again,  chiding  his  workmen  for  his  undoing  be- 
cause they  put  raisins  in  plain  bread.  That  he  did, 
and  you,  it  seemeth,  weight  your  sour  dough  with  the 
heavy  lead  of  affected  and  thrasonical  comparisons. 
My  complaint  goeth  not  to  that,  Gods  woe !  Have 
not  I  endured  burnings  enow,  effegies  and  bonfires 
enow,  roastings  enow,  and  am  I  to  be  told  that  a 
scurvie  play,  of  your  composition,  is  to  be  enacted 
on  the  fifth  day  of  November  next  following,  with 
my  lines  mouthed  (I  make  no  doubt)  by  a  villanous 
player,  doublet  unbelted,  hose  ungartered,  shoon  un- 
kempt, and  with  swart  wig  and  mustachios  in  the 
fashion  of  Stage  villans. 

An  the  puppet  doeth  it  that  way,  he  shall  answer 
to  Guido  Fawkes,  yf  he  chance  to  take,  as  manie 
actors  doe,  "  The  Brimstone  path "  you  once  did 
prate  of. 

Another  thing,  sirrah  ! 

History  taketh  knowledge  of  those  who  layed  the 
powder  plot,  Catesby  and  Percie.  I  justify  it  not. 
Wrong  begets  wrong  and  violence  breedeth  violence. 
They  played  for  vengeance  and  domination  —  and 
they  gat  damnation :  but  History  hath  not  recorded 
who  layed  the  Counterplot. 

M.  Catesby  was  a  man,  look  you,  who  brooked  not 
nay  from  any  human  being.  When  smock-livered 

[28] 


GUY  FAWKES  TO  FRANCIS  BACON 

Keyes  was  made  a  conspirator,  then  quod  I,  Catesby, 
mark  it  well,  never  yet  foregathered  thirteen  men 
but  one  approved  himself  a  Judas.  Tush,  answered 
he,  these  are  not  Jews  or  Spanish  Dons,  but  true 
born  Englishmen.  He  was  right,  I  wrong;  but  mark 
the  sequel.  He  would  have  Bates  his  servant  one  of 
us.  I  did  mislike  it.  Serving  men  are  not  meet 
coequals  for  gentlemen  and  soldiers.  He  would  have 
it  so  to  our  undoing,  yea  to  our  malign  undoing. 
From  the  hour  Bates  swore  on  the  Sacraments  to 
be  steadfast,  we  never  had  an  instants  peace. 

Confession  must  he  make,  go  to !  Absolution 
must  he  have  not  once  but  hourly. 

Zounds !  the  varlets  Conscience  was  a  disease  ! 
One  ghostly  father  contented  not  him,  and  Catesby 
nursed  his  humours.  Now  cometh  in  the  travesano. 
Not  every  cowl  covers  a  monks  head.  Twas  a  brave 
stratagem,  i'  faith,  to  trick  up  Salisburys  spy  in  Jesuit 
garb  and  so  obtain  Bates  his  confession. 

The  rest  was  easy!  but  methinks  the  warning 
letter  to  Mountegle  penned  under  your  direction 
lacketh  something.  It  should  have  borne  the 
Kings  own  signet,  because  he  did  peruse  it  before 
it  was  sent  and  expounded  it  after.  Fortunate  is 
the  countrie  whose  history  is  made  according  to  the 
rules  of  theatric  art.  Sirrah,  who  laid  the  Counter- 
plot? Not  craftie  Cecil,  dull  Popham  or  Coarse 
Coke. 

[29] 


GUY  FAWKES  TO  FRANCIS  BACON 

You  were  that  man,  and  I  am,  with  what  flourish 
you  will, 

GUIDO  FAWKES. 

Virgo  et  mater,  Sancta  Maria,  ora  pro  me. 


[  30] 


VI 

WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE  to  FRANCIS  BACON 

YB  Two  &  TWENTIE  DAY  OF  JANUARIE 

A.  D.  1905 

My  humble  dutie  unto  yr  Honer  first  in  most  humble 
wyse  rememberd. 

Thare  bee  of  late  comen  hither,  Rite  Honerable, 
divers  beeings  wh  I  think  good  to  advertise  you  of  & 
thare  uppon  to  desir  yr  frendlie  advisement. 

So  well  as  I  can  relate  this  is  the  matter,  a  thing 
which  hath  never  falne  out  tofore. 

Was  yeasterdaie  se'enight  the  whyles  I  beying 
att  the  lintallage  of  my  open  window,  passeth  one 
of  most  Worshippful  degree,  who,  after  given  mee 
gooden  in  strannge  facion,  brake  with  mee  and 
sayde, 

"  Hark  yee  !  Master  Shakspeare  the  whole  worlde 
reverences  yr  name  &  memorie  so  farre  forth  as  they 
bee  like  to  tare  anie  one  in  pieces  who  soe  much  as 
questioneth  your  learning  and  sufficiencie.  Yet  for 
mine  owne  part  I  can  not  wedd  ye  to  your  workes. 

C3i] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE  TO 

"  How  cometh  yt  to  pass,  quoth  'a,  yt  on  that 
Earthe,  ther  ar  soe  manie  and  great  reliques,  of  other 
menne,  such  as  is  lettars  bookes  and  MSS.  butt  of 
you  just  none  att  al,  saving  onlie  a  wyll,  peevish  and 
paltrie,  yll  wrytton,  yll  spelt  and  yn  everie  line  be- 
wraying a  weake  minde  and  a  weaker  penne  ?  " 

Answer  then  made  I  coldlie  unto  this  effeckt,  yt 
for  my  wyll  itt  was  made  by  a  lawyer's  clarke,  and 
for  the  other  thinges,  I  doubted  not,  I  cd  giv  him  satis- 
factio  yf  I  listed,  butt  whyle  wee  were  yet  speaking 
comen  two  others.  One  a  grave  and  reverent  soule, 
noble  of  porte,  and  of  visage  majesticall,  the  other  a 
drie  and  wizard-like  sprite  who  flouted  me  verilie  not 
by  wordes  butt  grinning. 

Then  spake  the  first,  craving  pardon  courteslie 
sithence  hee  was  a  stranger :  "  Yee  will  give  mee 
great  contentment,  forasmuch  as  I  have  long  desired 
this  knowledg,  yf  yee  wyll  expound  unto  mee  ye 
plaies  of  Macbeth,  King  Lear,  Hamlet  and  Othello. 
Meeseemes  and  unto  others  with  whom  I  have  for- 
tuned to  speake,  that  these  yr  chiefest  plaies  bee 
poesie,  in  forme  onlie  dramaticall,  butt  ar,  of  a  veri- 
tie,  parabolic  or  inclosed.  If  yea,  wherefore  keep  ye 
those  secretts  longer  ? " 

Or  ever  I  cd  make  replication  unto  him,  straight- 
waie  thrust  in  the  other,  "  Ha  !  ha  !  ha !  ha !  Master 
Shakspeare  knoweth  itt  well,  knoweth  yt  well.  Be- 
like hee  wyll  tell  you,  belike  hee  wyll  tell  you,"  saie- 

[32] 


FRANCIS  BACON 

ing  again  his  wordes  with  mocking  derision  and  manie 
quaint  gesturings  and  posturings. 

"  Riddle  mee  this,  worthie  Master  Shakspeare,  ridle 
me  thys:  My  Lo  Hamlet  hath  madness  when  the 
winde  bee  Nor-Nor-West,  but  when  ye  winde  is  South- 
erlie  Hee  knoweth  a  hawke  from  a  herne-shawe. 

"The  goodlie  Sir  John,  ho!  ho!  the  goodlie  Sir 
John  Falstaff,  hee  hath  reade  the  causes  of  appo- 
plexie  in  Galen,  hee  hath,  wher  bee  that  text.  Edifie 
us  thus  much,  great  poet,  what  pag,  what  booke,  read- 
est  hee  that  ? 

"  But  mee  noe  buts,  and  yf  mee  no  yfs,  out  of  thy 
vast  stores  of  learning  putt  in  ure  a  little."  Much 
more  to  the  self  same  tenour  railed  hee  on,  tho'  little 
I  marked  him,  reflecting  the  whyle  what  I  should 
saie  to  his  manifeste  scorning. 

Nowe  troth  to  speake  I  am  not  easlie  mooved  to 
anger  as  yr  Honor  knoweth,  butt  for  the  nonce,  clean 
forgott  I,  that  neither  hadd  I  then,  nor  have  I  nowe 
nor  ever  hadd  I,  anie  the  least  knowledg  of  these 
particularities.  I  mislike  much  to  confess  that,  in  my 
choler,  I  did  promise  them  both  to-morrow  weeke  a 
parfitt  exposcion  touching  those  matters  wherein  they 
did  questone  mee. 

Soe  with  what  speed  convenientlie  yee  maie  let  mee 
have  your  honors  aunser  back  againe. 
resting  yr  bounden 

WILL  SHAKSPEARE. 
[33  ] 


VII 

FRANCIS  BACON  to  WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

1905.   JAN.  24,  TUESDAIE 
Deare  and  loving  friend, 

Out  of  question  thou  hast 

put  thyself  in  a  posture  of  defence,  when  defiance  had 
been  better,  but  to  chide  thee  I  doe  forbear ;  and  the 
rather  because  thou  hast  been  alvvaies  of  approved 
discretion,  unmatched  faithfulness,  and  of  all  plaiers 
that  have  been  these  five  hundred  yeres  or  better  the 
non-pareil.  For  hast  thou  not  been  principall  in  a 
long  plaied  comedie  wherein  tho'  the  lines  were  few, 
and  the  cues  not  hard  to  hold  in  memorie,  yet  the 
action  of  the  plaie  demanded  on  thy  part  that  which 
is  most  difHcle,  seemlie  silence  and  seeming  veritie. 

Not  to  all  is  it  given  to  plaie  a  great  part  after  the 
scenes  of  Earthlie  Tragedie  &  Comedie  have  closed, 
and  for  this,  good  Will,  thou  maist  thank  mee. 

But  rest,  perturbed  Spirit :  soon  maist  thou  lay 
aside  thy  buskin  an  thy  masque,  and  the  part  of  the 
world's  dramatick  poet  will  be  taken  by  another. 

[  34] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

To  him  of  right  it  appertaineth,  as  in  due  and  fit 
Season  shal  be  shewn,  not  indeed  by  argument  but 
lawful  evidence.  My  digression  is  from  the  purpose : 
I  prithee  pardon  it. 

The  challenge  propounded  unto  thee  I  doe  con- 
ceive admitteth  on  thy  part  of  three  courses. 

Firstlie,  thou  maist  alleage  (and  this  is  open  to  con- 
struction) that,  upon  more  advised  thought,  thy  long 
silence  shall  not  be  broken.  Second,  thou  maist  an- 
swer in  part  and  defer  the  rest  to  thine  owne  appointed 
opportunities.  Third,  thou  maist  disclose  all  accord- 
ing as  I  now  direct  thee,  taking  heed  that  neither 
directly  nor  indirectly  thou  utterest  SUGGESTIO  FALSI 
nor  MENDACIA  VISA.  It  is  not  thy  province  to  supplye 
mindes  for  thy  buzzing  questioners,  who  would  faine 
drinke  at  the  fountaine  and  are  too  slothful  to  kneel 
at  the  rivulet.  This  bee  my  counsel  in  few :  answer 
the  scoffer,  and  let  the  wise  man  abide  thy  time  and 
abate  the  edge  of  his  o'er  mastering  importunitie. 
The  wisdom  whereof  will  appear  in  this,  that  his  wish 
runeth  deep :  his  is  a  speech  of  touch ;  it  goeth  to 
the  maine  in  that  it  importeth  more  than  it  expresseth. 

Redargution  of  the  four  idols  cannot  be  made  but 
by  these  plaies,  and  contrariwise  the  expounding  of 
the  plays  reveals  my  idols.  Thou  knowest  well,  none 
so  well  as  thou,  how  often  I  denied  thee  entrance 
into  my  arcana,  slighted  thee  off,  telling  thee  point- 
device,  such  things  were  not  for  thee,  nor  for  that 

[  35  ] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

yeastie  age  wherein  we  lived  and  had  our  mortal 
being. 

And  albeit  now,  so  is  it  that  I  care  not  greatlie, 
yet  would  I  have  the  aenigmatic  plaies  interpreted, 
vera  inductione  if  it  mought  bee.  The  question  hath 
been  moved,  and  I  give  thee  matter  wherewithal  to 
answer  it.  Make  use  of  it  as  it  pleaseth  thee. 

For  the  passage  from  Galen  which  thy  wizard-like 
sprite  demandeth  with  so  great  peremptoriness,  marry 
methinks  it  were  enough  to  answer,  that  there  is  a 
boke  which  he  may  rede,  if  he  bee  well  seen  in  the 
Greek  tongue,  set  forth  yf  I  mistake  not  in  Venice, 
which  hath  this  singularitie,  that  the  paging  thereof 
is  manifest  errore. 

Thou  maist  know  the  boke  by  the  impresse  or 
Embleme  of  an  Anchor  and  a  Dolphin,  and  thou 
maist  further  know  yt,  when  thou  comest  to  page  120 
wrongly  numbered  no. 

Note  that  the  pages,  as  then  custom  was,  are  on 
every  alternate  leafe,  and  turn  to  the  obverse  side  of 
true  page  158  and  untoe  that  part  which  beginneth 

ou  Trcurav  (nroTrX-r^iav  dAAa. 


This  Galen  was  a  learned  and  authentick  fellow, 
and  I  avowch  that  the  fat  knight  was  noe  lesse,  yf  I 
bee  not  deceived. 

It  cannot  bee  denied  in  reason  that  the  South  wind 
when  gentle  is  not  a  great  collector  of  cloudes,  but  yt 

[36] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

is  often  clear,  specialle  yf  it  bee  of  short  continu- 
ance ;  nor  can  it  bee  gainsayed  that  when  yt  contin- 
ueth  yt  bringeth  on  raine.  (I  meane  in  the  Northern 
Countries  as  Denmark.)  A  heron  when  it  soareth 
high,  so  as  sometimes  to  flie  above  a  low  cloud, 
shows  wind ;  but  Kites  (and  your  hawk  hath  the  same 
habitude)  flying  high  shows  fair  weather. 

It  followeth  thereupon  that  in  the  gentle  Southerly 
wind  both  hawk  and  hernshaw  are  low  flying  birds, 
and  the  cause  of  yt  is  this,  that  your  Nor-nor-west 
and  Nor-west  winds  bee  high  and  boisterous,  which 
the  heron  much  delighteth  in ;  contrariwise  the  hawk 
or  kite  and  Falcon.  All  this  may  be  reade  by  your 
prolocutor  (yf  so  bee  it  he  wishes)  in  the  History  of 
the  Windes  at  divers  pages,  writ  by  me,  and  pub- 
lisht  long  after  thou,  good  friend,  hadst  quitted  the 
earthlie  stage  for  ever. 

Goe  to,  then,  is  it  not  easie  to  discern  Lord  Ham- 
let's drift? 

He  is  but  mad  in  a  gale,  but  when  the  wind  is 
Southerly  he  knoweth  a  hawk  from  a  hernshaw. 

For  him  who  flouted  thee  let  this  suffice. 

For  the  question  remaining,  it  asketh  a  strong  wit 
to  be  able  to  propound  it,  and  I  misdoubt  whether  in 
short  compass  it  can  be  answered.  But  to  the  pur- 
pose. These  plaies  stand  in  the  folio  not  as  I  would 
have  them  each  in  his  own  due  order;  their  sequence 
should  bee  Macbeth,  Lear,  Hamlet,  Othello :  and  I 

[  37  ] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

marvaille  greatlie  that  it  hath  not  been  noted  hitherto 
how  great  is  their  resemblance  to  certain  cognate  and 
parallel  things  in  my  Novum  Organum. 

The  idols  which  bewitch  the  human  intellect  are 
four,  and  I  did  nominate  them  with  care,  as  followeth, 

The  Idol  of  the  Tribe, 
The  Idol  of  the  Cave, 
The  Idol  of  the  Market  Place, 
The  Idol  of  the  Theatre.1 

Now  note  that  in  common  speech  all  are  rightlie 
pronounced  save  onlie  Lear,  which  should  be  called 
Lair  not  Leer,  as  habit  now  is.  Heedful  care  did  I 
take  to  indicate  in  manie  of  my  writings  the  true 
sound  of  Britain's  ancient  King,  but  to  no  purpose. 
Thus  I  spelled  rare-boiled  eggs  rear-boiled  eggs,  as 
witnesseth  my  Sylva  Sylvarum,  yet  such  is  the  in- 
veterate custom  of  men,  once  wrong  never  right. 

This  appeareth  of  little  import,  yet  hath  it  much. 

The  three  letters  Mac.  hath  been  time  out  of  mind, 
among  Gaelic  races,  a  tribal  designation.  Mac  Der- 
mott  of  the  tribe  of  Dermott,  Mac  Donald  of  the  tribe 
of  Donald,  Mac  Beth  of  the  tribe  of  Beth.  That  Lair 
meaneth  cave  or  den  of  a  wild  beast,  needeth  not 
amplitude  of  argumentation. 

For  Hamlet,  canst  thou  bethink  thee  of  anie  ham- 
let in  England  that  hath  not  his  market  place,  and 

1  Novum  Organum,  Book  I,  Aphorism  39. 
[38] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

needst  thou,  therefore,  to  aske  under  which  subdivi- 
sion it  falleth  ? 

The  Idols  of  the  Theatre  are  not  innate,  nor  secretly 
insinuated  into  the  human  intellect.  They  arise  from 
the  perverted  laws  of  demonstration,  from  wild  fables 
and  oracular  traditions.  Thou,  good  friend,  art  in 
thine  own  person  the  greatest  theatrical  idol;  and 
having  regard  to  thy  long  continuance,  Time  should 
be  depicted  not  with  his  scythe  and  hour  glass,  but 
with  a  mallet  or  beetle,  to  crush  and  destroy  mental 
idolatry.  I  did  essaie  the  task,  but  failed. 

Mankind  would  not  note  that  Othello  is  practised 
upon  in  plaine  view  of  all.  That  lago  pileth  up  the  af- 
firmatives, and  the  Moore  asketh  not  for  the  negative 
instance. 

Verie  well,  the  openly  perverted  laws  of  demonstra- 
tion that  plaie  condemns ;  and  is  it  credible,  thinkest 
thou,  that  soe  easie  a  lesson  hath  not  been  applied  to 
thee,  good  Will,  par  example  ?  Let  the  idols  and  the 
plaies  be  now  putt  in  their  sequent  co-ordination. 

Macbeth The  Tribe 

.Lear The  Cave 

Hamlet The  Market  Place 

Othello The  Theatre 

Of  the  idol  of  the  tribe  I  saie : 
The  human  intellect  from  his  own  property  easilie 
supposes  greater  order  and  equality  in  things  than  it 

[39] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

findeth.  The  human  intellect  draweth  all  things  to 
agree  with  those  things  in  which  it  taketh  delight ; 
and  although  there  bee  greater  weight  and  power  of 
instances  contrariwise,  yet  doth  it  not  observe  or 
distinguish  these  things,  or  dispiseth  them  or  by  friv- 
olous distinctions  rejecteth  or  removes  them  from  the 
path,  but  not  without  great  and  pernicious  prejudice. 

The  human  intellect  is  specially  moved  by  that 
which  doth  suddenlie  strike  it,  and  becometh  filled 
with  phantasies  and  fantastick  dreams.  It  runeth  not 
to  instances  remote  and  hetrogeneous  whereby  axioms 
are  tried  as  by  fire.  The  mind  presseth  on  and  on, 
but  in  vain. 

Such,  then,  are  the  idols  of  the  tribe  which  arise 
from  the  spirit  of  man  beeing  of  an  equal  and  uniform 
substance,  supposing  greater  regularitie  than  exist- 
eth,  from  its  own  preoccupations,  from  its  narrow- 
ness, from  its  restless  motion,  from  the  infusion  of 
its  wishes,  from  incompetence  of  the  senses,  and  from 
its  impressions. 

It  hath  been  noted  by  manie,  that  the  Scotch, 
otherwise  a  sedate  and  serious  people  of  grave  rather 
than  mirthful  natures,  bee  very  prone  to  superstition. 
Macbeth  is  much  given  to  it.  The  witch's  prophecy 
on  the  blasted  heath  strooke  suddenlie  and  sharplie 
upon  that  man's  veine ;  he  stoppeth  not  to  enquire 
whether  the  weyard  women  were  phantasmes  or  real. 
They  met  him  on  the  day  of  his  successes,  and  there 

[40] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

was  more  in  them  than  mortal  knowledge.  "  Quod 
voluimus  facile  credimus?  sayeth  Caesar,  and  thou 
mayest  there  see  the  superstitious  tribal  idolator 
bowing  and  genuflecting  before  his  own  wild  fancies. 

This  state  of  mind  agreeth  well  with  the  sentence 
from  Novum  Organum,  "  The  human  intellect  is  spe- 
cially moved  by  that  which  doth  suddenlie  strike  it." 
Mark  his  second  stage :  he  drew  all  thinges  to  agree 
with  that  prophecy  wherein  he  took  delight.  Mark 
again  the  third  stage,  which  this  exclaim  connoteth : 
"  Better  be  with  the  dead  whom  we  to  gayne  our 
peace  have  sent  to  peace,  then  on  the  torture  of  the 
minde  to  lye  in  restless  ecstacie." 

Thou  seest  there  how  the  mind  presseth  on  and 
on,  but  in  vain.  Observe,  last  of  all,  how  the  infu- 
sion of  his  own  wishes  did  constrain  him  to  believe 
that  Birnam  Wood  could  never  come  to  Dunsinane. 
Failing  at  the  first  to  try  the  witch's  words  by  the 
touchstone  of  reason,  he  uttereth  that  despairing 
cry :  "  And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  be- 
lieved, that  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense ;  that  keep 
the  word  of  promise  to  our  eare,  and  break  it  to  our 
hope." 

For  the  present  let  this  suffice  touching  the  idol 
of  the  Tribe. 

I  did  conceive  the  idol  of  the  Cave  to  be  moulded 
out  of  particular  contemplations  of  the  individual 
man.  For  particular  contemplations  darkeneth  the 

[41  ] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

intellect  as  do  caves  and  caverns  light.  I  did  imagine 
a  type  or  model  in  the  ancient  King,  of  the  uni- 
versal man,  dividing  his  kingdom  among  three  —  two 
unworthy,  one  worthy. 

That  kingdom  might  be  his  time,  the  onlie  certain 
possession  of  mortal  man.  Let  Cordelia  personify 
useful  studies  and  contemplations,  these  he  banish- 
eth ;  and  Regan  and  Goneril  be  types  of  useless 
pursuits,  vain  philosophy,  and  the  arid  logic  of  the 
schoolmen.  The  King  trusteth  to  appearances  from 
the  determinate  bent  of  his  own  mind,  takes  re- 
fuge at  last  in  his  actual  cave  and  den,  with  reason 
dethroned  and  a  fool  for  his  couch-fellow.  This 
be  the  moral  thereof :  distrust  thine  own  hasty  and 
predeterminate  opinions. 

The  idol  of  the  Market  Place  is  fashioned  out  of 
those  abberations  which  men  have  in  consort  or 
society.  It  was  in  my  youth  that  I  did  ponder  and 
weigh  the  advantages  of  an  active  and  contempla- 
tive life,  and  it  seemed  that  there  mought  be  un- 
folded by  means  of  a  drama  that  perpetual  struggle 
between  wish  and  duty  which  is  as  old  as  history. 

Hamlet  doth  portray  and  embody  the  new  philo- 
sophy, the  philosophy  of  true  induction,  which  gath- 
ereth  knowledge  as  the  bee  doth  honey  from  flower 
to  flower. 

The  usurping  king,  his  uncle,  is  a  lively  represen- 
tation of  the  dusty  arid,  yea  bastard  philosophy,  of 

[42] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

the  schoolmen,  of  Duns  Scotus  et  id  omne  genus ; 
that  philosophy  of  logic  which  under  the  leadership 
of  the  great  Stagirite  enslaved  the  human  mind  and 
made  mankind  bondsmen  for  lo  these  many  cen- 
turies. Note  how  the  parable  in  Hamlet  runeth  out. 
Polonius  from  the  signification  of  the  term  stands 
for  policy  or  statecraft ;  Ophelia,  as  her  name  de- 
noteth  in  the  Greek  word  o^eXeta,  meaneth  profit ; 
Laertes  her  brother,  a  derivative  from  the  Greek, 
doth  denote  pleasure-seeking  leisure ;  Gertrude  the 
Queen  from  the  German  words  signifieth  All-truth. 
If  Hamlet,  who  doth  personify  the  new  philosophy, 
shall  intermarry  with  Profit,  thereby  he  shall  be- 
come the  son-in-law  of  Policy,  the  brother-in-law  of 
Leisure,  and  the  husband  of  Worldly  Advantage. 

Will  he  kill  the  false  philosophy,  that  is  the  King, 
and  divorce  Truth  from  his  foul  embraces  ?  I  trow 
not.  The  way  of  the  world  runeth  not  in  that  direc- 
tion. Prince  Hamlet  recks  well  the  penalties  of  delay, 
knoweth  well  that  duty  enjoineth  upon  him  one 
course,  his  advancement  and  worldly  honours  de- 
mandeth  the  other.  The  contemplative  life  alone  can 
destroy  the  King,  the  active  life  of  business  and 
affaires  offereth  present  rewards,  and  so  halting  upon 
the  edge  of  opportunity  suffers  destruction  for  him- 
self in  the  fulfillment  of  his  destiny.  What  hath  this 
to  doe  with  the  Market  Place  ?  Marry  this  life  is  a 
market  place  where  some  come  to  trade  and  make 

[43  ] 


FRANCIS  BACON  TO 

their  profit,  and  some  come  to  utter  their  commodi- 
ties, and  some  come  to  look  on. 

My  Lord  Hamlet  looked  on  too  long. 

I  did  well  conceive  another  thing  of  which,  I  make 
bold  to  think,  the  tragedie  of  Hamlet  giveth  some 
small  adumbration. 

You  shall  understand  that  the  spirit  of  man  is 
God's  lamp.  There  be  in  his  creatures  a  triune  for- 
mation :  the  body,  the  mind,  and  the  soul.  A  platform 
of  these  I  do  set  forth  in  that  play.  The  body  is  the 
tragedie's  outward  garb  or  semblance,  the  words  of 
the  players  the  action  of  the  characters,  the  move- 
ment of  the  incidents. 

The  mind  of  the  plaie  is  the  play  within  the  play, 
wherein  Hamlet  caught  the  conscience  of  the  King ; 
the  soul  is  the  parable  therein  contained,  as  hath 
been  already  in  good  part  expounded. 

It  were  good  thy  interlocutor  looked  for  himself 
somewhat  more  narrowly,  and  percase  he  may  then 
descrie  for  himself  something  which  for  this  present 
I  do  reserve. 

For  the  idol  of  the  Theatre  there  needeth  little 
more  than  hath  been  already  touched  upon.  The 
predominant  note  of  my  parable  therein  is  sounded 
in  this  line, 

"  Sweet,  I  love  thee,  and  when  I  love  thee  not  chaos  is  come 
again." 

Othello  the  Moore,  model  of  force  or  power,  is 
[44] 


WILLIAM  SHAKSPEARE 

mated  with  pure  reason,  of  which  pure  reason  Desde- 
mona  is  the  type.  Power  and  reason,  matchless  twain, 
are  separated,  o'erthrown,  destroyed  by  trust  in  de- 
ceitful appearances,  openly  insinuated  into  the  mind 
of  one,  by  the  false  logic  and  damned  arts  of  lago. 
Himself  doth  hold  and  contain  the  principle  of 
human  not  supernatural  evil,  (if  such  there  be,)  and 
the  perverse  laws  of  demonstration,  which  last  are  in 
themselves  the  greatest  human  evil. 

To  draw  to  an  end  with  thee,  good  friend,  craving 
pardon  for  so  long  a  letter,  seest  thou  not  that  each 
and  every  of  these  four  plaies  hath  for  a  theme  the 
peril  of  trusting  wholly  to  outward  appearances? 
Macbeth  trusteth  to  the  outward  seeming  of  black- 
hearted divination ;  Lear  to  the  mouth-made  vows  of 
two  treacherous  daughters.  My  Lord  Hamlet  is  wiser, 
but  not  wise  enough;  he  would  have  grounds  more 
relevant  than  the  ghost's  word,  but  trusted  still  that 
the  time  was  not  ripe  for  the  destruction  of  the  swag- 
gering usurper.  Othello,  as  hath  been  said,  (though 
the  net  was  spread  in  the  presence  of  the  bird,)  put 
trust  in  forged  circumstance  and  linked  dissimula- 
tion. 

How  much  ought  men,  therefore,  to  be  warned  that 
they  put  not  their  trust  (I  mean  this  not  harshly)  in 
the  art  of  the  player;  I  mean  in  sooth  in  thee,  good 
friend,  heeding  not  that  they  are  hearing  from  thy 
lips  the  philosophy  of  another. 

[45  ] 


BACON  TO  SHAKSPEARE 

Thus  have  I  in  part  answered  thy  friend,  the  which, 
if  thou  impartest  it,  it  shall  be  to  his  contentment,  I 
no  whit  doubt,  and  so  I  rest  thy  loving, 

FRAN.  BACON. 


[46] 


VIII 

NOTES  CRITICAL  AND  EXPLAN- 
ATORY 

NOTES   TO   DE   BRUCK'S   LETTER 

The  Emblems  of  de  Bruck,  referred  to  herein,  published 
1616,  may  be  seen  at  the  following  Libraries  :  — 

British  Museum  Library. 

Konigliche  Bibliothek,  Berlin. 

Konigliche  und  Universitats  Bibliothek,  Breslau. 

Stadt  Bibliothek,  Breslau. 

Grossherzogliche  Hofbibliothek,  Darmstadt. 

Offentliche  Bibliothek,  Dresden. 

Kaiserliche  Universitats  und  Landes  Bibliothek,  Strasbourg. 

Herzogliche  Bibliothek,  Wolfenbiittel. 

Hof  und  Staats  Bibliothek,  Munich. 

Det  Store  Kongelige  Bibliothek,  Copenhagen. 

"  THE  DRAM  OF  EALE  doth  all  the  noble  substance  of  a  doubt 
To  his  own  scandal." 

Hamlet,  Act  i,  Scene  2,  is  a  most  notable  crux,  and  with- 
out the  eel  emblem  of  de  Bruck  it  is  impossible  to  expound 
it.  I  take  the  meaning  of  the  passage  to  be  this  :  a  dram  is 
a  draught,  and  a  draught  is  a  drawing :  see  Gospel  accord- 

[47] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

ing  to  St.  John,  chap.  xxi.  Therefore  the  drawing  of  the 
eel  doth  beget  all  the  noble  substance  of  a  doubt.  The  last 
sentence,  to  his  own  s  candle,  manifestly  refers  to  de  Bruck's 
Emblem  13,  which  Bacon's  letter  interprets. 

But  for  this  letter  of  the  Chevalier  de  Bruck,  I  should  be 
inclined  to  affirm  in  all  confidence  that  no  such  man  ever 
existed  ;  but  seeing  that  he  writes  from  the  other  world, 
needs  must  we  abandon  doubts  and  cavillings.  It  will  re- 
quire supernatural  evidence  to  efface  my  unchanging  belief 
that  the  pretended  persons  to  whom  he  dedicates  his  strange 
book  were  all  and  every  of  them  mythical.  As  the  book  is  of 
considerable  rarity,  I  myself  never  having  met  with  but  one 
perfect  copy,  it  were  well  that  some  one  set  forth  hereafter 
a  reproduction  of  it  in  facsimile.  The  plates  interpreted  by 
Bacon  are,  as  will  be  seen,  reproduced,  but  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  those  are  the  only  ones  possessing  for  us  an 
abiding  interest.  The  part  which  emblems  play  in  the  great 
scheme  of  induction  which  Bacon  lived  to  perfect  is  not  at 
all  well  understood.  Though  subordinate  to  his  main  de- 
sign, their  office  is  of  great  utility.  I  feel  that  I  am  in  a 
position  to  declare  that  de  Bruck  surpasses  all  the  rest  in 
historic  and  literary  interest.  The  full  title  of  de  Bruck's 
volume  is  as  follows  :  — 

LES  EMBLEMES  MORAULX  ET  MILITAIRES 
Du  Sieur  Jacob  De  Bruck  Angermundt 
Nouvellement  mis  en  Lumiere 

A 
Strasbourg,  Par  Jacob  de  Heyden  Graveur,  L'an  M  D  C.XVI. 

It  must  not  be  confounded  with  de  Bruck's  "  Emblemata 
Politica,"  published  three  years  later.  The  book  ought  to 

[48] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

contain,  besides  the  Latin  verses,  fifty  verses  in  French, 

or  German,  as  the  case  may  be.    The  Secant  Emblem  (No. 

29  in  de  Bruck,  No.  8  here)  has  the  following  verses  in 

French  :  — 

"  Le  fourmys  qui  d'un  soing  grandement  mesnager 
Amasse  tout  1'este  ce  qu'il  lui  faut  1'hyver 
Et  ces  hoyaux  tranchants  monstrent  que  qui  travaille 
D'un  labeur  assidu,  il  devient  abondant 
En  tout  forte  de  biens,  mais  qui  se-va-meslant 
Des  affaires  d'autruy  n'acquiert  pas  une  maille." 

Reading  upward,  first  letter  of  each  line,  we  obtain  the 
acrostic  to  which  Bacon  refers,  "  Ded  eal,"  that  is  to  say, 
dead  eel.  The  one  in  Napier's  Logarithms,  quoted  in  Napier's 
letter,  is  like  the  one  in  the  first  verses  of  the  "  Rape  of 
Lucrece,"  except  in  "  Lucrece "  the  reading  in  first  row  is 
downward. 

"  From  the  besieged  Ardea  all  in  post, 
Borne  by  the  trustlesse  wings  of  false  desire, 
Lust-breathed  Tarquin  leaves  the  Roman  host, 
And  to  Colatium  beares  the  lightlesse  fire, 
Which  in  pale  embers  hid,  lurkes  to  aspire, 
And  girdle  with  embracing  flames,  the  wast 
Of  Collatine's  fair  love,  Lucrece  the  chast." 

"  F.  B.  law  a  o,"  means  Francis  Bacon's  law  a  cipher.  It 
would  be  puerile  to  point  out  all  these  idle  toys.  They  are 
almost  countless  in  Shakespeare's  Sonnets,  because  though 
they  may  command  assent  to  the  proposition,  they  do  not 
take  hold  of  the  rem. 

Bacon  did  not  disdain  the  use  of  pictures,  that  is,  em- 
blems, because,  as  he  said,  they  reduced  ideas  intellectual 
to  things  sensible,  his  words  are  : "  Embleme  deduceth  con- 
ceptions intellectual  to  images  sensible,  and  that  which  is 

[49] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

sensible  more  forcibly  strikes  the  memory  and  is  more  easily 
imprinted  than  that  which  is  intellectual."  (Advancement 
of  Learning,  Book  v,  chap.  5.)  Nor  did  he  disdain  the  use 
of  allegory.  I  call  to  mind  a  book,  edited  by  a  writer  whose 
name  for  the  moment  escapes  me,  who  has  been  at  great 
pains  to  demonstrate  what  is  patent  enough,  one  would 
think,  that  Shakespeare  is  mentioned  under  the  title  W.  S., 
a  player,  in  a  book  published  in  1594,  called  "  Willobie  his 
Avisa."  If  that  writer  had  been  gifted  with  the  least  scien- 
tific imagination  he  would  have  taken  the  name  of  the 
heroine  of  this  book  and  substituted  for  the  letter  V  (Roman 
numeral  5)  the  number  5.  Her  name  would  then  have  stood, 
A  5  is  a,  and  if  he  had  then  read  the  sixth  book  of  the  "  De 
Augmentis  Scientiarum  "  of  Francis  Bacon,  he  would  have 
discovered  that  in  a  cipher  therein  described  aaaaa  =  A, 
(a  five  is  a),  and  had  he  then  gone  further  and  tested  the 
fivefold  cipher  in  Willobie's  volume  by  the  key  Bacon  gives, 
his  conjectures,  instead  of  being  of  trivial  interest,  would 
have  been  of  substantial  advantage  to  mankind.  But  to  shew 
these  evident  truths  to  thick  and  thin  Shakespeareans  is, 
as  has  been  said,  "  like  giving  medicine  to  the  dead." 

Moreover,  if  the  allegory  had  been  truly  discerned,  that 
the  fivefold  cipher  personified  as  Avisa,  like  her  could  not 
be  conquered,  it  would  have  spared  the  world  that  mass  of 
rubbish  called  the  fivefold  cipher  story,  which  has  bewil- 
dered and  amused  this  age. 

I  have  said  that  the  emblems  constitute  a  subordinate  part 
of  Bacon's  system  of  induction.  What  his  system  really  was 
is  not  well  understood  by  those  who  never  read  the  "  Novum 
Organum,"  nor  is  it  comprehended  by  those  who  cannot 
plead  that  excuse.  There  is  plenary  evidence  that  Bacon's 

[  50] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

contemporaries  had  as  little  comprehension  of  it  as  the  men 
of  our  time. 

"  It  deserveth  not  to  be  read  in  schools  but  to  be  freighted 
in  the  ship  of  fools,"  said  Coke. 

"  It  is  like  the  peace  of  God,"  said  King  James.  "  It 
passeth  all  understanding." 

The  so-called  Baconians,  professing  profound  belief  in  the 
proposition  that  the  Primate  of  all  Literatures  is  Bacon  and 
not  Shakespeare,  have  been  as  guilty  as  their  fellows  the 
Shakespearean s.  Wilfully  have  they  closed  their  eyes  to  the 
fact,  for  fact  it  is,  that  the  dramas  of  Shakespeare  were 
written  for  a  twofold  purpose,  first  to  demonstrate  how  help- 
less is  all  logical  process  whatsoever  in  the  interpretation  of 
their  origin  and  meaning.  Secondly,  and  this  is  their  fun- 
damental purpose,  to  act  as  the  fourth  part  of  the  Great 
Instauration :  the  actual  types  and  models  described  on 
page  28  of  the  "Novum  Organum"  (ist  edition,  1620),  and 
therefore,  of  course,  to  serve  as  tables  of  induction.  The 
Baconians  instead  of  taking  up  this  obvious  position  have 
preferred,  amid  the  scoffing  and  jeers  of  the  world,  to  argue 
their  case  with  nothing  in  their  hands  but  the  inept  syllo- 
gism, with  nothing  except  the  method  of  Aristotle  which 
Bacon  wrote  to  overthrow.  What  has  been  the  result  ?  I 
think  I  may  say  without  arrogance,  a  trickle  of  trivialities 
into  a  puddle  of  platitudes.  The  doors  of  the  temple  stood 
open  for  them,  but  not  one  of  them  so  much  as  crossed  the 
threshold.  Had  they  been  true  disciples  of  their  master, 
that  is,  inductive  philosophers,  they  would  have  begun 
by  coordinating  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  with  the  pre- 
rogative instances  of  Bacon.  The  mode  of  doing  this  I  now 
shew. 

[51  ] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

Play  Shakespeare  Instance  Bacon 

1.  Timon  of  Athens.  Solitary. 

Timon,  disgusted  with  mankind,  takes  refuge  in  his  cave. 

2.  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona.  Migrating. 

Valentine  sets  out  on  his  travels. 
(Act  i,  Scene  i.) 

3.  Midsummer  Night's  Dream.       Free  and  predominant. 

Puck  is  freed  from  all  human  restraints. 

4.  Titus  Andronicus.  Twilight  or  weakest. 

The  weakest  and  the  worst  of  Shakespeare's  dramas. 

5.  Henry  VI.  Lesser  form. 

The  only  play  which  has  three  parts. 

6.  Comedie  of  Errors.  , 

Physical  resemblance. 


Twelfth  Night. 

The  comedy  element  in  each  of  these  plays  turns  upon 
the  physical  likeness  of  the  two  Dromios  and  of  Viola 
and  Sebastian. 
7.  The  Winter's  Tale. 


Singular. 
Cymbelme. 

These  plays  are  singular  because,  in  the  first,  Bohemia 
has  a  seacoast,  and  the  second  ends  with  that  strange 
prophecy  commented  upon  in  the  interpretation  of 
de  Bruck's  Emblem  No.  5.  Moreover,  the  blank  verse 
in  both  plays  differs  widely  from  the  versification 
elsewhere  used. 

8.  Richard  III.  Deviating  or  monstrous. 

The  King  a  hunchback  and  a  monster  of  cruelty. 

9.  Troilus  and  Cressida.  Bordering. 

This  play  is  on  the  borderland  betwixt  history,  comedy, 
and  tragedy,  and  therefore  is  not  indexed  in  the  first 
folio  as  belonging  to  any  one  of  the  three  classes  into 
which  the  plays  are  divided. 
[52] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

10.  Hamlet. 

Macbeth.   . 

>  Power. 

Lear. 

Othello. 

By  common  consent  the  most  powerful  plays. 

11.  Much  Ado  about  Nothing.  Companionship  and 

Enmity. 
Enemies  become  lovers,  lovers  enemies. 

12.  King  Henry  V.  Subjunctive  or  Marriage. 

The  marriage  of  King  Henry  V.  of  England  to  Kath- 
arine of  France. 

13.  King  John.  Treaty. 

The  theme  of  this  play  is  the  treaty  with  France. 

14.  Romeo  and  Juliet.  Cross. 

Two  lovers  crossed  in  love. 

15.  King  Henry  VIII,  Divorce. 

The  King  divorces  his  Queen,  Katharine  of  Arragon. 

16.  Coriolanus.  Door  or  gate. 

Caius  Marcius  is  killed  at  the  gates  of  Rome. 

17.  Richard  II.  Summoning. 

An  outlawed  man  is  in  this  play  summoned  to  do  fealty. 

1 8.  Taming  of  the  Shrew.  Road. 

Petruchio's  Kate  is  tamed  by  travel  on  the  Road. 

19.  Measure  for  Measure.  Substitution. 

Angelo's  wife  substitutes  herself  for  his  mistress. 

20.  Merchant  of  Venice.  Dissecting. 

Shylock  would  cut  his  pound  of  flesh. 

21.  Love's  Labours  lost.  Verge  or  limitation. 

The  characters  are  forbidden  to  come  within  the  Verge 
of  the  Court. 

[53] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

22.  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  Course  or  water. 

Antony  flies  from  the  battle  in  Queen  Cleopatra's 
galley. 

23.  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well.  Dose. 

The  theme  of  this  play  is  a  dose  of  medicine. 

24.  As  You  Like  It.  Wrestling. 

The  heels  of  Charles  the  wrestler  and  Rosalind's  heart 
tripped  up  in  the  same  wrestling  bout. 

25.  Julius  Caesar.  Intimating  or  prophecy. 

Beware  the  ides  of  March,  says  the  soothsayer. 

26.  Henry  IV.  ) 

General  use. 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor.  ) 

These  plays  have  characters  in  common,  Prince,  Fal- 
staff,  Poins,  and  Bardolph. 

27.  Tempest.  Magical. 

Prospero :  "  Lo,  here  I  break  my  magic  staff,  bury  it 
certain  fathoms  in  the  ground,  and  deeper  than 
plummet  ever  sounded  /'//  drown  my  book" 

The  Instances  are  set  down  as  Bacon  records  them  in  the 
"  Novum  Organum,"  and  in  his  own  order.  Their  names  are 
translated,  in  the  main,  as  Spedding  translates  them,  but  I 
prefer  Montague's  translation  of  the  word  "luctae,"  wrest- 
ling, not  strife,  in  order  to  bring  out  the  identity  of  "  As 
You  Like  It "  with  Bacon's  Instance  No.  23.  The  order  of 
the  plays  is  changed  from  the  order  which  obtains  in  the 
first  folio,  and  made  to  conform  to  Bacon's  Prerogative  In- 
stances. Whosoever  shall  take  it  upon  himself  to  declare, 
in  the  magisterial  manner  of  Shakespearean  scholars,  that 
my  grouping  of  plays  and  Instances  is  an  exercise  of  the 
fancy,  will  be  obliged,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  to  retract  his 
opinion. 

[  54] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

"  The  old  need  not  therefore  be  true, 
O  brother  man,  nor  yet  the  new  ! 
But  still  awhile  the  old  thought  retain, 
But  yet  consider  it  again." 

ADDENDUM  TO  THE  TABLE  OF  INSTANCES  AND  PLAYS 
"  Argument  can  make  a  fact  seem  strange,  but  it  cannot 
make  it  not  a  fact."  I  have  said  enough,  perhaps  more  than 
enough,  to  indicate  my  belief  that  the  plays  of  Shakespeare 
and  the  Instances  of  Bacon  are  things  to  be  done,  and  not 
the  framework  of  casuistry,  be  it  never  so  subtle. 

William  Shakespeare  is  the  possessor  of  the  proudest  lit- 
erary title  in  history.  Whosoever  shall  oust  him  from  that 
possession  must  do  so  by  the  strength  of  his  own  para- 
mount rights,  and  not  by  the  weakness  of  the  title  of  the 
"  Bard  of  Avon,"  so  called.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  pro- 
duction of  a  book  with  William  Shakespeare's  name  printed 
thereon  as  the  author  is  not  legal  evidence  of  his  author- 
ship, because  there  exists  no  writing,  letter,  or  manuscript 
to  support  that  title,  and  because  his  name  was  printed  on 
other  books  to  the  authorship  of  which  no  claim  on  his  be- 
half is  now  made ;  nevertheless,  I  should  suppose  his  title 
to  all  his  works  to  be  prima  facie  good.  How  it  will  be  when 
the  manuscripts  and  the  new  plays  shall  have  been  pro- 
duced is  another  question.  It  may  be  said,  however,  and 
the  remark  is  a  sentimental  one,  that  it  matters  little  who 
was  the  author,  so  long  as  those  matchless  writings,  called 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare,  are  the  property  of  mankind. 
Men  may  say,  Communis  error facit  jus.  Would  it  were  so. 
But  the  fact  is  that  those  plays  are  chained  by  inseverable 
cables  to  Francis  Bacon's  Prerogative  Instances,  and  I  leave 
this  part  of  the  subject  with  this  defiant  observation  :  that 

[  55  ] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LETTER 

neither  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  nor  the  Instances  of 
Bacon  can  be  expounded  by  any  human  being  except  and 
unless  the  one  be  read  in  reference  to  the  other. 

Had  believers  in  Bacon  made  a  classification  such  as  I 
have  shewn,  they  might  indeed  have  failed  to  convince  the 
world  of  the  truth  of  their  postulate,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
should  have  saved  themselves  much  merited  contempt.  But 
if  men  reject  the  obvious,  how  can  they  expect  to  grapple 
with  the  complex. 

Emblems  in  the  following  books  can  be  identified  as  a 
substantive  part  of  Bacon's  inductive  philosophy.  In  saying 
this  I  do  not  mean  to  affirm  that  the  emblems  in  their  en- 
tirety were  devised  by  him,  but  that  all  of  the  books  now 
mentioned  contain  plates  of  his  invention. 


Author 

J.  Camerarius. 

J.  Cats. 

Boisardi. 

J.  Bornitius. 

J.  de  Bruck. 

J.  de  Bruck. 

J.  de  Brunes. 

Heinsius. 

Heyns. 

Oraeus  Viridarium. 


LIST 

Title 

Symbolorum  et  Emblematum. 
Silenus  Alcibiadis  sive  Proteus. 
Emblemata. 

Emblemata  Ethico  Politica. 
Emblemata  Moralia  et  Bellica. 
Emblemata  Politica. 
Emblemata. 
Emblemata  Amatoria. 
Emblemata  Moralia. 


G.  Rollenhagen.         Emblematum. 


Schoonhovius. 
J.  Typotius. 
O.  Vaenius. 


Emblemata. 

Symbola  Divina  et  Humana. 
Amorum  Emblemata. 
[  56] 


Date 
1590 

1618 

'593 
1664 
1616 
1618 
1624 
1619 
1625 
1619 
(1611 
(1613 
1618 
1600 
1612 


BRIGGS'S  LETTER 

M.  Claud  Paradin.     Devises  Royales.  1622 

Van  de  Velde.  Emblemata.  N.  D. 

Of  these,  de  Bruck  and  Bornitius  are  the  most  important, 
the  former  for  reasons  already  given.  The  latter  because 
plates  7,  23,  44,  45,  49  (Sylloge  I),  and  plates  9  and  36 
(Sylloge  II)  contain  authentic  likenesses  of  Bacon,  whilst 
plates  17,  24,  and  38  (Sylloge  I)  and  16  and  31  (Sylloge 
II)  contain,  as  I  believe,  portraits  of  his  private  secretary, 
Sir  Thomas  Meautys. 

With  the  exception  of  Bornitius,  the  foregoing  volumes 
bear  date  within  the  period  of  Bacon's  lifetime,  that  is  to 
say  between  1560  and  1626.  I  have  not  met  with  an  earlier 
edition  of  Bornitius  than  1659.  My  conjecture,  however,  is 
that  the  manuscript  came  into  the  hands  of  Gruter  with 
other  manuscripts  of  Bacon's,  published  by  him  in  the  year 
1653- 

NOTES  TO  BRIGGS'S  LETTER 

The  part  which  logarithms  play  in  Bacon's  system  of  in- 
duction is  an  important  one.  They  bear  the  relation  to  the 
"  Novum  Organum  "  which  the  heart  does  to  the  body.  In 
Hamlet's  phrase,  "they  are  the  heart  of  his  mystery,  not 
easilie  to  be  plucked  out." 

It  will  require  more  space  than  is  here  at  my  command  to 
present  in  adequate  form  their  just  relation  to  the  body  of 
Bacon's  work.  "  Investigation,"  said  he,  "  has  the  best  result 
when  it  begins  in  physics  and  terminates  in  mathematics." 
"  To  find  the  form  of  the  given  nature,  or  the  true  specific 
difference,  or  the  nature  engendering  nature,  or  the  fountain 
of  Emanation,  is  the  labour  and  duty  of  human  knowledge." 

[57] 


BRIGGS'S  LETTER 

Foreseeing,  therefore,  that  he  must  ultimately  rest  upon  a 
mathematical  foundation,  that  true  specific  difference  which 
he  denominates  the  form,  he  cast  about  him  for  some  origi- 
nal discovery  in  the  mathematics.  He  had  noticed,  as  early 
as  1594,  the  peculiarities  of  the  two  series  of  progressions, 
arithmetical  and  geometrical,  pointed  out  in  Briggs's  letter, 
and  had  discovered  the  principle  underlying  all  tables  of  log- 
arithms. He  knew  that  any  table  must  have  a  base,  and 
that  "  a  logarithm  is  the  exponent  or  power  to  which  an  in- 
variable number,  called  the  base,  must  be  raised  in  order  to 
produce  the  number  of  which  it  is  the  logarithm."  He  had 
in  fact  at  that  time  subtracted  from  the  base  10,  which  is 
the  base  of  the  Briggs  or  common  table  of  logarithms,  the 
base  e"1,  which  is  the  fraction 

i 

27182818285 

and  is  the  base  of  Napier  s  system.  Thereby  he  had  ob- 
tained the  true  specific  difference  between  the  two  bases, 
namely:  the  five  numbers  9'632i.  . .  .  and  thus  completed 
the  demonstration  that  those  numbers  constitute  his  form. 
As  a  consequence  of  this  he  laid  down  the  axiom  in  the 
"  Novum  Organum  "  that  the  form  must  increase  when  the 
given  nature  increases,  decrease  when  the  given  nature 
decreases,  and  be  perpetually  absent  when  the  given  nature 
is  absent. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  Briggs's  logarithms  outnumber 
Napier's. 

For  this  reason  Briggs's  base  is  larger  than  Napier's,  and 
finally,  for  this  reason,  in  a  metaphysical  sense,  logarithms 
vanish  when  the  bases  disappear.  When,  in  the  edition  of 
the  sonnets  of  Shakespeare  of  1609,  the  pronoun  "thy"  is 

•    [  58  ] 


BRIGGS'S  LETTER 

constantly  misprinted  "their,"  he  well  expected  that  poster- 
ity would  read  the  first  line  of  Sonnet  122  thus  :  — 

"Their  guift,,  their  tables  are  within  my  braine 
Full  charactered  with  lasting  memorie," 

and  would  draw  the  just  and  necessary  inference,  that  the 
double  commas  after  "guift"  should  be  construed:  "Two 
come  as  their  tables." 

That  is  to  say  ;  Briggs's  tables,  Napier's  tables. 

Great  would  have  been  his  surprise  —  for  he  devised  em- 
blem after  emblem  containing  logs  —  could  he  have  antici- 
pated that  nigh  three  hundred  years  would  go  by  before 
even  the  given  nature  of  his  system  of  induction  could  be 
established.  This  is  not  the  place  to  present  the  indubita- 
ble evidence  of  what  is  here  asserted.  It  may  be  enough  to 
declare  that  the  original  evidence,  documentary  and  other- 
wise, exists,  and  shall,  to  use  a  parliamentary  phrase,  in  due 
course  be  laid  upon  the  table. 

It  has  been  said  that  John  Napier  did  not  know  that  his 
logarithms  had  a  base.  A  quotation  from  a  standard  work 
will  show  this:  "We  should  premise  that  in  comparing 
Napier's  logarithms  with  those  to  the  base  c1  (which  is  the 
base  required  by  his  reasoning,  though  the  conception  of  a 
base  was  not  formally  known  to  him).1'  (The  Construction 
of  the  Wonderful  Canon  of  Logarithms,  William  Rae  Mac- 
Donald's  translation,  1889,  page  90.) 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  what  are  called  in  the  text-books 
Naperian  logarithms  are  not  Napier's  logarithms  at  all. 
Naperian  logarithms,  whose  use,  for  the  most  part,  is  con- 
fined to  analytical  mathematics,  are  calculated  to  base  «, 
that  is  to  say,  27182818285.  I  suggest  that  this  base  has 

[  59] 


BRIGGS'S  LETTER 

been  adopted  by  mathematicians  in  preference  to  e'1,  the 
fractional  form  given  above,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of 
deducing  Napier's  true  base  unless  recourse  be  had  to  a 
common  table  of  logarithms.  That  Napier's  true  base  is  e'1, 
the  subjoined  formula  demonstrates  :  — 

Formula 

i 
Sine  45°  =  —  =  7071068 

\r* 

Napier's  log.  thereof  —  3465735 
Let  P  =  Napier's  base  (P  <  i) 
Then  P3466735  =  7071068 
Log.  10  P3466735  =  Log.  10  7071068 
3465735  log.  10  P  =  1-849485 

F-849485     -  150515 
:  •  Log.  10  P  =  -          -SB— 

3465735       3465735 

Log.  10  (Log.  10  P)  =  177580  -  539796 
=  1-637784  =  Log.  10  (4342945) 
Log.  10  P  =  4342495  =  Log.  10  e 
i 


27182818285  < 

Felicitous  is  the  lot  of  the  English  man  of  letters  who 
constitutes  himself  guardian  of  William  Shakespeare's  lit- 
erary reputation.  Mr.  Sydney  Lee,  a  renowned  writer,  who 
depends  in  part  on  his  fancy  for  his  facts,  and  thereby 
has  been  much  bepraised  by  the  unthinking,  is  authority 
for  the  following  statement  :  "  He  (Bacon)  knew  nothing  of 
Napier's  discovery  of  the  logarithms."  (Great  Englishmen 
of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  page  248.)  So  far  as  Mr.  Lee  is 

[60] 


FAWKES'S  LETTER 

concerned,  Napier's  letter  states  the  facts  with  pitiless  accu- 
racy ;  but  dehors  the  record,  as  one  may  say,  there  are 
extant  two  books  which  utterly  refute  Mr.  Lee's  placid  dic- 
tum: (a)  Napier's  Logarithms,  ist  edition,  1614,  annotated 
in  Bacon's  handwriting,  (b)  Briggs's  Logarithms,  1624, 
wherein  Bacon  with  his  own  pen  has  verified  some  of 
Briggs's  calculations. 

The  irony  which  pursues  men  who  "  know  so  much  that 
is  not  so  "  will  be  borne  in  on  Mr.  Lee's  mind  hereafter. 


NOTES   TO   FAWKES'S   LETTER 

"  Jesus !  Maria ! "  is  an  invocation,  not  an  oath.  The 
practice  was  common  among  Roman  Catholics  of  that  time. 

The  full  title  of  the  poem  Fawkes  refers  to  is  as  fol- 
lows :  "  In  homines  nefarios,  qui  scelere,  ausuq :  Immani, 
Parliamenti  iampridem  habendi  domum,  pulvere  bombardico 
evertere,  sunt  machinati,  scilicet  quinto  Novembris,  1605." 
The  book  was  printed  at  Cambridge  by  the  press  of  Legat, 
in  the  year  1605,  and  consists  of  22  pages.  Although  there 
are  no  specimens  extant  of  Bacon's  acknowledged  Latin 
verses,  the  internal  evidence  of  this  poem  proves  that  it 
could  have  emanated  from  no  other  man.  When  the  whole 
case  is  set  forth,  substantial  agreement  upon  this  point  may 
be  expected.  It  contains  lines  of  great  power.  These  may 
serve  as  an  example  :  — 

"  O  patria,  O  pelagi,  decus  Anglia  &  inclyta  bello 

Gloria  saxonidum !  quantum  mutatis  ab  ilia 
Quae  fueras  olim,  mundi  melioribus  annis? " 


[61  ] 


SHAKESPEARE'S   LETTER 


NOTES   TO   SHAKESPEARE'S   LETTER 

The  criticisms  on  Shakespeare's  will,  though  harsh,  may 
be  shewn  to  be  justifiable.  It  is  paltry  in  construction  be- 
cause it  is  marred  by  so  many  interlineations.  It,  recites, 
line  2,  that  the  testator  is  "in  perfect  health  and  memo- 
rie."  Notwithstanding  this,  in  item  2  the  testator  gives  and 
bequeaths  unto  his  daughter  Judith  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  more  if  she  or  any  issue  of  her  body  be  living  at  the 
end  of  three  years,  —  not  after  the  testator's  decease,  but 
three  years  ensuing  the  day  of  the  date  of  this  his  will. 

Non  constat  a  man,  in  perfect  health  and  memory,  might 
himself  be  in  full  life  at  the  date  specified.  He  provides  that 
if  any  husband  of  Judith  to  whom  she  may  be  married,  at  the 
end  of  the  said  three  years,  shall  assure  unto  her  and  her 
issue  lands  answerable  to  the  portion  there  given,  then  "  My 
will  is  that  the  said  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  shall  be 
paid  to  such  husband  as  shall  make  such  assurance  to  his 
own  use''  What  he  meant  to  say  no  doubt  is,  that  the  said 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  shall  be  paid  to  such  husband 
to  his  own  use  as  shall  make  such  assurance.  This  is  a  very 
different  thing,  for  otherwise  the  husband  might  create  a  use 
in  his  own  favour,  and  thereby  fulfil  the  language  of  the  will 
but  not  its  intention. 

It  is  peevish  because  the  testator  "breaks  his  mind  to 
small  matters  "  and  leaves  his  wife  his  second  best  bed  with 
the  furniture. 


[62] 


BACON'S   LETTER 

NOTES   TO   BACON'S   LETTER   TO    SHAKE- 
SPEARE 

This  question  of  the  wizard-like  sprite  is  shallow  and 
jejune.  It  is  open  to  any  man's  industry  to  sift  out  the  quo- 
tations from  Galen  to  which  Falstaff  refers.  In  addition  to 
the  Greek  excerpt  from  the  undated  Aldine  (circa  1525)  I 
append  from  the  Latin  edition  of  Galen,  Froben,  1562,  other 
passages  which  have  some  bearing  on  the  symptoms  and 
causes  of  apoplexy. 

Tom.  i,  93,  B. 

"  Apoplexia  est  dilentio  mentis  cum  exceptione  sensum  et  cor- 
poris  resolutione,  item  apoplexia  est  in  nervis  omnitus  sensus 
et  motus." 

Idem.    Tom.  1, 3,  A.  B. 

"  Apoplexia  ex  humanorum  Crassorum  copia  generatur,  qui  capi- 
tis  vasa  unde  corpore  sentendi  movendique  factulas  advenit, 
obstruant  Longi  morbi  interioribus  accident  hi  cephalaea  mor- 
bus  comitialis.  Vertigines  oculorum,  Caligationes  insania,  me- 
lancholia lethargus" 

"  Ex  logis  morbis  Cephalaea  interims  capitis  dolor  est." 

The  Greek  text  is,  however,  the  one  Falstaff  remembered, 
in  his  interview  with  the  Lord  Chief  Justice. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  the  allusion  to  Falstaff 
has  reference  to  Sir  John's  famous  interview  with  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice,  Second  Part  of  King  Henry  IV,  Act  I, 
Scene  2 :  — 

"  Falstaff.  This  Appoplexie  is  (as  I  take  it)  a  kind  of  Lethargy, 
a  sleeping  of  the  blood,  a  horson  Tingling. 


BACON'S   LETTER 

Justice.  What  tell  you  me  of  it  ?  be  it  as  it  is. 

Fahtaff.  It  hath  it  original  from  much  grief,  from  study  and 
perturbation  of  the  braine.  /  have  read  the  cause  of  his  effects  in 
Galen.  It  is  a  kind  of  deafness." 


[64] 


My  labour  as  editor  of  these  letters  has  now  been  brought  to 
an  end.  What  men  say  about  this  book,  or  write  about  it, 
concerns  them  and  not  me.  To  those  who  are  engaged  in 
the  business  of  erecting  a  national  memorial  to  Bacon's  Idol 
of  the  Theatre,  William  Shakespeare,  I  tender  this  unwel- 
come advice :  they  had  better  lose  no  time.  The  ground 
beneath  that  Idol  is  heavily  mined. 


IX 
DE   BRUCK'S   LATIN  VERSES 

ENGLISHED  IN  TEN  PARAPHRASES 
By  the  EDITOR 

i 

THE   EEL   EMBLEM 
MOTTO  :  At  last  they  sliake 

As  sportive  lads  who  play  in  snow 
Can  make  a  little  ball  wax  great 
Though  it  began  attenuate  ; 

So  through  another  thou  didst  grow. 

Living  thou  wast  unseen,  half-dumb, 
And  useless  in  the  vain  pretence 
Of  intellectual  eminence, 

Have  done  with  it.  Thy  hearse  hath  come. 


[66] 


DE  BRUCK'S    LATIN   VERSES 


TREE   EMBLEM 

MOTTO:  It  flourishes 

If  God  nourishes 

The  tree  that  is  dry  we  abandon, 

Though  once  it  bore  flower  and  seed, 

But  the  merciful  God  layeth  hand  on 
The  Dead,  and  they  blossom  indeed. 


3 

SNAIL   EMBLEM 

(SYMBOL  OF  THE  AUTHOR) 

MOTTO  :  Nothing  beyond 

Whilst  I  have  health  and  vigour  left, 

And  my  unclouded  mind, 
Of  favouring  Fortune  not  bereft 

And  Providence  is  kind ; 
Why  is  it  that  a  man  so  old, 

In  many  a  curious  coil 
Some  secret  writings  to  infold, 

Should  kill  himself  with  toil  ? 
Because  with  my  last  prayer  and  breath 
I  crave  supremacy  o'er  death. 


[  67] 


DE  BRUCK'S   LATIN   VERSES 

4 
BOX   AND   CIPHER   EMBLEM 

MOTTO  :    Wltat  I  desire  is  not  mortal 

Old  Timon's  wealth,  Apollo's  grace, 
And  Hercules'  unbending  thews, 
Are  like  the  baubles  children  choose, 

Are  like  the  shadows  which  men  chase. 

Above  my  head  I  hold  at  rest 

A  cipher  signifying  nought 

To  thy  dull  intellect  untaught : 
But  tell  me  what  is  in  my  chest  ? 

5 
THE   CANDLE  EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  13) 
MOTTO  :   The  touchstone  of  Virtue  is  glory 

Shake  speares !  sound  trumpets !  in  the  lists 
The  visored  knight  his  futile  course  doth  run ; 

Brazen  his  armour,  iron  are  his  wrists, 
But  he  shall  falter  ere  this  joust  be  done. 


[68  ] 


DE  BRUCK'S  LATIN   VERSES 
6 

THE   LIGHT   AND   DARK   A   IN   BRANCH    OF 
TREE   EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  1 8) 
MOTTO  :    Vice  breeds  vice 

Nature  gives  cautions  when  wise  counsellors  blanch. 
The  leaf  infected  will  infect  the  branch. 
All  evil  concourse  let  thy  wisdom  flee, 
Thy  boon  companions  are  no  boon  to  thee. 

7 

LOG   EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  B.  6) 

MOTTO  :  Nothing  solid 

Now  who  shall  read  the  laws  of  him 

Who  knew  not  his  own  laws, 
Or  understand  the  causes  dim 

Of  faults  that  had  no  flaws  ? 


[69] 


DE  BRUCK'S   LATIN   VERSES 
8 

SPADE   EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  29) 
MOTTO  :  By  diligence 

Many  men  do  many  things, 
And  many  things  are  done, 

And  one  would  fly  with  waxen  wings, 
Who  recks  not  of  the  sun ; 

But  he  who  sees  his  duty  clear 

Achieves  what  little  men  do  fear. 

9 
THE  VULTURE   EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  n) 
MOTTO  :  Ignorance  must  be  overcome 

Above  the  avaricious  vulture  stays, 
Before  the  anagram  betrays. 


[70] 


DE  BRUCK'S    LATIN   VERSES 
10 

ANCHOR   AND   GIRL   EMBLEM 

(DE  BRUCK  NO.  8) 
MOTTO  :    Whilst  I  breathe  I  shall  hope 

Fate  with  her  pallid  lips  oft  cried, 
Give  o'er,  for  thou  art  overborne  I 
A  wasted  life  thou  mayest  mourn, 

But  my  faith  told  me  fate  had  lied. 


(From  Bornitius'  Emblem  Book) 


[72] 


(From  Bornitius'  Emblem  Book) 


b^itt  mtinfyerf  fatotity 


JB  3. 


[73  ] 


GLOSSARY 


Angermundt, 

Advertisement, 

Arcana, 

Avowch, 

Approved, 

Bedesman, 

Brize, 

Bewraying, 

Belike, 

Buzzing, 

Boke, 

Caveat, 

Clarke, 

Comen, 

Communis  error  facit  jus, 

Circa, 

Certes, 

Canticles, 

Difficle, 
Dehors, 

Enow, 


a  town  in  Germany. 

archaic  word  for  information. 

concealed. 

to  make  certain. 

proved. 

petitioner. 

breeze. 

to  betray. 

probably. 

annoying. 

book. 

warning. 

clerk. 

have  come. 

common  error  makes  right. 

about. 

certainly. 

songs. 

difficult, 
outside  of. 

enough. 
[75  1 


GLOSSARY 

Exclaim,  exclamation. 

Et  id  omne  genus,  and  all  that  sort. 

Facion,  fashion. 

Flouted,  ridiculed. 

Gooden,  good  evening. 

Impress,  device  or  emblem. 

Inward,  intimate. 

Inter  alia,  among  other  things. 

In  Homines  Nefarios,  Against  the  Wretches. 

In  few,  in  brief. 

Lyntellage,  headpiece  of  a  door  or  window. 

Mirifici  Logarithmorum  Ca-  Description  of  the  Law  of  the 
nonis  Descriptio,  Wonderful  Logarithms. 

Mirabile  Dictu,  wonderful  to  relate. 

Magna  est  Veritas  etpraeva-  Great  is  Truth  and  it  shall 
kbit,  prevail. 

Meeseemes,  methinks. 

Mendacia  visa,  plain  untruth. 

Maine,  the  important  part. 

Mought,  obsolete  preterite  of  the  verb 

may. 

Nil  ultra,  nothing  beyond. 

Nonce,  once. 

Non  cons  tat,  it  stands  not. 

Parbolic,  expressed  by  parable. 

Parfitt,  perfect. 

[76] 


GLOSSARY 


Point-device, 

Prolocutor, 
Percase, 

Quarterne, 
Quoth  'a, 

Quod  voluimus  facile  credi- 
mus, 

Redargution, 

Satis  superque, 
Sparta, 

Shoon, 
Seenight, 
Sithence, 
Suggestio  falsi, 
Stagirite, 

Sylloge, 

Thrasonical, 
Tofore, 
Troth, 
Touch, 


Travesano, 


exact.    Its  use  as  an  adverb  is 

uncommon, 
inquirer, 
consequently. 

4  Ib.  loaf  of  bread. 

said  he. 

what  we  wish,  easily  we  believe. 


refutation. 

enough  and  more  than  enough. 

plants  indigenous  to  Spain,  of 
which  nets  are  made. 

obsolete  plural  of  shoe. 

a  week. 

since. 

false  suggestion. 

an  appellation  given  to  Aris- 
totle from  his  birthplace. 

collection. 

boastful. 

before. 

truth. 

"  Speech  of  touch  "  is  a  speech 
that  sensatively  affects  a  per- 
son or  thing. 

Spanish  for  crossing  or  thwart- 
ing. 


Ure, 


use. 
[77] 


GLOSSARY 

Virgo  et  Mater,  Sancta  Ma-     Virgin  and  Mother,  Holy  Mary, 

ria,  ora  pro  me,  pray  for  me. 

Vera  inductione,  by  true  induction. 


Weyard, 
Yt, 


wayward. 

the  pronoun  it,  and  a  contrac- 
tion for  that. 


Eltctrotyped  and printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mast.,  U.S.A. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  687  394     7 


